3 Days in Tehran - 3 Days of Madness

First, we headed towards the bazaar to orient ourselves. After 100 meters, the first merchant asked us 'Where are you from'? After revealing that we're from Germany, we were able to have a flawless conversation with the colleague in German, which we didn't expect.

My first impression? Like Hanoi, but in Iran. Apparently, our hotel is located on the car street, where you can find everything related to cars, including roadside repairs. A few meters further, we found ourselves on Hi-Fi street, where you can find everything related to electronics, ranging from 20-year-old remote controls to Xbox and PS4. There are also several other themed streets in the city. Our actual search for train tickets, however, proved to be difficult because there is no street for that. Around the bazaar, there should be travel agencies that sell us tickets for the overnight train to Isfahan. However, the first agencies didn't understand us, and the others wanted to sell us 'plain' tickets instead of 'train' tickets. We deduced this from the high price (€60) and left empty-handed. By the way, there is a whole street for travel agencies here as well.

Communication is very difficult here, and our Farsi is still expandable. You can't know everything ;)

So, we went to a restaurant and pointed to a dish - my meat (no idea what it was) was very delicious. Strengthened, we continued, but unfortunately, without any success. Since we wanted to take a look around, we took the metro back to the bus station and visited the Azadi Monument located there, which was very impressive. At the bus station, we made a decision and bought tickets for a VIP night bus. It's still shitty that it didn't work out with the train.

On the way back, we quickly took a photo in front of a famous Tehran graffiti. Ironically, the (closed) office of the Iranian Railways was located nearby.

For the rest of the day, we aimlessly wandered around (I can't remember ever walking around a city in such a planless way) and let ourselves drift. At the end of the day, we had a delicious sandwich and smoked a shisha, and we were immediately invited to drink vodka. For safety reasons, we declined for now, who knows what's to come, but apparently, we attract such things magically :)

On the second day, we ended up in a way too expensive and not worth mentioning palace. But now we probably own some shares in that place.

Then we continued to the Milad Tower, a 435-meter-high television tower. On the way there, we got a little scared when two policemen stopped us in an apparently very conservative neighborhood near the Islamic center of Iran. But since we didn't do anything wrong, we were allowed to continue. Probably just a mix-up, but I'm sure they don't see two non-believers wandering there every week after Friday prayers.

The tower itself was very impressive, although even we amateurs could recognize some construction flaws after only 8 years. After that, we briefly visited the bazaar and went to a kebab restaurant. After smoking a shisha and engaging in small talk (2 1/2 hours) with the son of the hotel owners, we fell asleep tired.

The third day started with a visit to the Golestan Palace, which is absolutely impressive. A very well-kept park and impressive buildings with mosaics and mirrored rooms. Then, we were supposed to go to Mount Tochal, Tehran's local mountain (3,964 meters). On the way there, when buying drinks, we were greeted with a loud 'Heil Hitler' after the obligatory 'Where are you from' and our response. The colleague was visibly proud and tried to explain that his last name was Hitler or at least pronounced that way. He meant no harm.

Unfortunately, both the longest cable car in the world and the summer toboggan run there were closed. Shitty again! Nevertheless, from the base station at an altitude of 1,900 meters, we had a breathtaking view over Tehran. On the way back, we visited a modern bridge that connects two hills in the city. On the way to the metro, we passed by the huge 'Holy Defense Museum.' What an imposing facility! Here, we also decided that we will travel to Iran again. On the way back to the hotel, we met a solo German traveler for the second time, who does couchsurfing in Iran. I think we should try that too! So, we spent another hour in the hotel lobby with internet and tea before the night bus took us to Isfahan, heated to 32(!) degrees.

In conclusion?! An insane city with an incredible amount of traffic and incredibly friendly people. You just have to wander around helplessly, and people will try to help you wherever they can. If people hear that you're from Germany, you've practically found a new friend.

Photos will follow tomorrow when we have more than 100 MB available :)

Internet seems to be a rare commodity here.